WATCH SUPERBARS & SPIDERS RUN!

[Captain Fred Archer]

Shoe,

Something else that I tried to mention, but couldn't get back in the previous post to, is the fact that our bars truly are the beneficiaries of some extremely talented materials, aerodynamic and hydrodynamic and other engineering oriented minds. That is no marketing bullshit, but hard, cold facts - thank God! We are blessed with living in a very high tech part of the world and are further blessed to have a pool of those people among our long and loyal customer base working with and helping us develop our products. From Brian, who helped us discover and then acquire our XT-11 composite and its compatible center towbar head material (who is still with us), to the rest of you wonderful "TechHeads", my deepest thanks for all of that.

I also missed out on saying howdy to JW, one of the young sharpies. Hey, Johnny, why don't you tell everybody what you said the first time you saw the below? It happened on the first day of John's introduction to SuperBars.

We are locked and loaded and ready for bear - or tuna - and ready to rock, as usual. It may look unbelievable, but it's the way that it is and that's all there is to it. Now, where's rocker Angus when I need him?

[Fishin-N-Wishin]

Capt. Fred,
I just printed the catologue and my wife caught me gawking at all the pictures/porn! HAHAHA Admittedly the videos are better than pictures. Question about the planers option with the dredges. How far back off the planer do you run the dredge? Or would a torpedo weight do just fine, say like a 48 oz.?! Fill my melon with knowledge!

[Captain Fred Archer]

Fishin' How far behind a planer or downrigger ball (I use a 15# Salt Slicer, not a ball for more speed) is more a matter of personal taste and the fish that are around than anything else. For instance, on the west coast we live under the constant threat of both mako and thresher sharks, with the threshers being the biggest problem because they are such bad assed ground pounders. They run from 150-600+ pounds out here and if you're fishing the wrong gear, well, do I have to tell you what will happen? Which it did, in fact, to Da Goose while he was bounce balling for halibut just a couple of days ago. His forty pound could handle any halibut that swims, but like he says, that thresher did it in after doing a fly-by and waving his booty at Rick.

There is nothing that west coast guys can do about threshers loving Spider Dredges...they are like everything else. They see that pod of bait going by with a straggler lagging behind the others, or a little predator appearing to be chasing and about to catch it - and they cream it! If it happens to be a thresher, you better have the right gear out and been eating your Wheaties!

There is another problem with threshers and downrigger balls out here - the T-sharks regularly slap the crap out of both balls and planers for some strange reason. Many times they get wrapped up in the cable or planer line and if your downrigger drag is locked up they simply rip it right off the boat! If the drags are backed off on downriggers or planer rods, all that happens is they get spooled. You lose the cable and ball, but get to keep your downrigger. This isn't a rare occurence at all. Happens all the time.

So, we run Spiders at least a hundred feet behind the ball or planer when fishing for pelagics in an effort to attract the fish to the Spider and not the ball or planer. That helps cut down on the ball bites. I suppose that the folks who are already running planers and downriggers have their own personal preferences when it comes to how far back they run their lures and that's fine...the Spiders run like champs wherever you put them.

Ya takes your chances doing stuff like inshore ball bouncing for halibut out west and big fluke and stripers back east, because the Spider has to be in close proximity to the bottom bouncing ball when the big flatties or bass come to investigate the ruckus being made. Goose was only in fifty feet of water when he had his encounter of the thresher kind the other day.

Spiders do open up a whole new world of dredge fishing for anybody, big boat and big budget or small boat and small budget. And they are so light and so easy to handle and fish with on light or heavy tackle, anybody can fish them.

Couple final things...

First, this fuel thing is going to have a big effect on many things, including how and where we fish. Some who formerly ran planers for their deep fishing are going to wind up switching to downriggers instead because of the fuel savings between the faster planer trolling speeds and the much slower downrigger ones. And for those who don't know it, you can catch everything that you catch on planers on downriggers, absolutely including those wahoo that most of us think are only interested in fast trolled stuff.

That absolutely is not true! The first wahoos I ever caught on downriggers (the first saltwater fish I ever caught on downriggers, in fact) were three nice ones that Roger, the fellow who showed me this down in Key West about thirty-five years ago put down below a weed line full of dorito's (what I call dink dolphin). I was as shocked as I was the first time I saw a video of 'hoo coming up a chunk line, slowly swimming up to and slurping chunks down like goldfish eating bread. You do not have to go fast to catch wahoo...you just have to put the right stuff in the right places and you can flat murder them! That's why there are forty pages of downrigger info in the new wahoo book. It's all about less blind trolling and instead working specific pieces of the structure that wahoo like (wrecks, humps, reef edges, canyon edges and turns, floaters, towers, temp breaks, even deep, open water bait concentrations.)

RuckusRaisers are amazing things! it's hard to see in the video, but here's a shot of how they run, so you can look back and see them "standing on their own two feet" and raising hell with no birds or other stuff involved. They really raise the hell out of the fish - and note - they are being run flat in the video and these picts, not off of riggers.

[Fishin-N-Wishin]

Capt. Fred!,
Man, that's a mouth full! O.K., so I'm a small budget guy. The planer is the cheaper way to go it seems for me. Or even the torpedo lead I suppose even cheaper as the fuel consumed planer vs. torpedo weight is a no brainer. Now, before the roar of laughter sets in (in preparation for this question) with 100 ft. of line beyond the planer, how do you get the fish close to the boat with the planer inline. Do you hand line the 100 ft?
The order is coming soon, I can tell you that! You ought to sell T-shirts just for the extra $ and the hell of it! I'm in for a long sleeved cotton T with a Spider rig affixed
Honestly, with what experience I have, I haven't been grounded by a shark yet and I hope I just didn't jinx myself!

[Roddy Hays]

Fishin'

Run the planer off an old bent-butt rod, cut down, with a two-speed reel loaded with 200lb spectra. Rig the planer the same way you'd rig a downrigger, with a release clip or dacron loop/Power Gum loop to a clip. This way you can get the whole deal out of the water after the bite. Here's a thread about it that may explain more.

Roddy

[wauwinet]

Originally Posted by Captain Fred Archer

Shoe,

Something else that I tried to mention, but couldn't get back in the previous post to, is the fact that our bars truly are the beneficiaries of some extremely talented materials, aerodynamic and hydrodynamic and other engineering oriented minds. That is no marketing bullshit, but hard, cold facts - thank God! We are blessed with living in a very high tech part of the world and are further blessed to have a pool of those people among our long and loyal customer base working with and helping us develop our products. From Brian, who helped us discover and then acquire our XT-11 composite and its compatible center towbar head material (who is still with us), to the rest of you wonderful "TechHeads", my deepest thanks for all of that.

I also missed out on saying howdy to JW, one of the young sharpies. Hey, Johnny, why don't you tell everybody what you said the first time you saw the below? It happened on the first day of John's introduction to SuperBars.

We are locked and loaded and ready for bear - or tuna - and ready to rock, as usual. It may look unbelievable, but it's the way that it is and that's all there is to it. Now, where's rocker Angus when I need him?

WOW! you really do run those things close to the boat.

[Fishin-N-Wishin]

Roddy,
Thanks for the great thread! I can do that! I'll have to invest in a bent butt rod I guess. I am sooooo looking forward now to my keys trip more than I ever have! I want to thank all who had input/advice to this here amature recreational fishin-n-wishin bouy. With the order going to Capt. Fred this weekend, I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas to arrive!

[Captain Fred Archer]

Thanks for the input, Roddy. It sure is nice, having an all-pro like you around! I have to learn more about that Power Gum stuff. I keep hearing good stuff about it, but haven't done my homework on it.

One thing that I don't have to do any homework on is those Hays Handles of yours. I haven't looked at your video yet (I will! I will!) and I hope they are in there, but if not, let me say that I have used them for many years now on all of my heavy rigs and they are just incredible - that's it - incredible! Before I used them there was no way that you could have convinced me that even a little gal could one-hand a 130 hooked up to a big tuna or blue one from the covering boards to the chair, but it absolutely can be done. Amazing! If you use heavy gear in the 50-130# class, do yourself a huge favor and try these babies out. Once you do, you will not be able to fish without them.

wauwinet...I do not call that close. In over fifty years of running my own boats and those of others, plus being blessed to have fished with some of the truly great ones on great boats, the short corners have been the hot holes on just about every, single one of them. And I can't recall fishing with a true pro who didn't have those holes filled. And yes, I'm talking SHORT! You would not believe my number one blue marlin and wahoo hole on The Archer.

It is the left short corner, with the lure or bar held down by a LOW flatline clip IN the very first wake wave, - not #2, which many would consider very close, but that very first hump. That puts the lure/Marlin or WahooBar only about six feet back and when a big blue comes for it, it looks like she's gonna come right in the 'pit! Never had one do that, but just the memories of seeing those bites is enough to give me the shiverin' shakes!

And the best memories are when someone was sitting on the stern covering boards, usually in the middle and shooting the shit with someone else and SHE explodes out of the corner of his or her eye and looks like she is picking their pocket! Lots of screaming and jumping around and yelling and cursing when that happened. Good thing too, because I was on the hammers by then and burying the hooks in that she-blue!

In every book that I have ever written I have stated that the boat is the biggest teaser of them all. Dive some time and have a boat run over you. From down below the boat hull looks exactly like a big meatball of bait being driven by predator fish (the props). And remember, fish are not rational, thinking creatures like we are. They are complete victims of their instincts and genetic cores. I know that some don't agree and that some bluefin trollers in particular have vastly different attitudes, but for the vast majority of the pelagic fishes that we fish for, the above is exaclty what they "see". (Don't ask me about those bluefin).

No matter what anyone else thinks, if I were restricted to only two trolling holes, they would be the short and long corners and I'd do just fine, thank you! And I'd hook the hell out of what hit because they would be nice and close, without a lot of stretchy mono cushioning my hook sets, be they with J's or Circles.

Give it a good, honest try. I have zero to gain by passing this on to you.

And you heavy gear guys, take a hard look at those Hays Handles.

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by Captain Fred Archer

Shoe,

Something else that I tried to mention, but couldn't get back in the previous post to, is the fact that our bars truly are the beneficiaries of some extremely talented materials, aerodynamic and hydrodynamic and other engineering oriented minds. That is no marketing bullshit, but hard, cold facts - thank God! We are blessed with living in a very high tech part of the world and are further blessed to have a pool of those people among our long and loyal customer base working with and helping us develop our products. From Brian, who helped us discover and then acquire our XT-11 composite and its compatible center towbar head material (who is still with us), to the rest of you wonderful "TechHeads", my deepest thanks for all of that.

I also missed out on saying howdy to JW, one of the young sharpies. Hey, Johnny, why don't you tell everybody what you said the first time you saw the below? It happened on the first day of John's introduction to SuperBars.

We are locked and loaded and ready for bear - or tuna - and ready to rock, as usual. It may look unbelievable, but it's the way that it is and that's all there is to it. Now, where's rocker Angus when I need him?

Yo Fred,
Archer Bars?
Yes, they do rock for allot of reason's. I have believed in and have been using spreader bars for a few years, there is no questioning their effectiveness and ability to give any boat a much better opportunity to catch a ton more fish!
Historically the majority of bars have been built on metal stock and thus requires heavier tackle and line, and there are plenty of great metal based bars that troll and fish great and will catch a boat load of fish.
If you prefer running 20-30 lb tackle these bars give you that ability; as they don't have the heavy pull and drag many bars do.
Fred's bar's a cool becasue they are super light and built in a way that drastically reduces tangles and hang-ups. For some reason beyond my comprehension you can literally grab a bar and toss it overboard and 9 times out of 10 it straightens itself out and is swimming sweet in 10-20 seconds.
Being able to crank up a bar on a rigger and have it swinging in the breeze as you run to a pod of tuna and just drop it back in and have it start working the majority of the times saves a ton of time and hassle, because they are so light they don't pop the clip like most bars.
Same deal with the new subsurface variety that will allow you to get them down and keep them down with much lighter weights than most sub-surface lures or baits require.
Looking forward to giving some of your new products a run this year Fred, keep pumping them out and good luck,
JW

[Captain Fred Archer]

Thank you, John. You are right about the lighter tackle that can be used on SuperBars, but I wouldn't want to leave anyone with the impression that their light weight, easy handling, no tangling and tiny amount of drag are limited to light tackle only. No way! Guys who use the heaviest gear, up to and including 130# can get all of the benefits you listed and many do. And to a man, rave about them and how much easier they are to use.

Can they handle the adult strength gear? Absolutely! The proof of that should be our unique, lifetime of the owner no bar breakage guarantee (under normal fishing conditions - in other words, not if you wrap them up in your wheels), not warranty that we have never had to invoke in over fifteen years and many thousands of bars of all sizes.

And some build bars for big fish on little leaders that have to be babied and watched and changed frequently. We don't do that. SuperBar rigging was developed to survive and thrive under hardcore, an average of year-round, six days a week big game fishing, where run time to the fish was often minutes and never more than an hour away, without worrying about and constantly checking and re-rigging main bar leaders. We didn't have time for that sort of thing, so we came up with rigging for bar room brawling, not ballet dancing and didn't play second fiddle to any boat that ran minimal rigging or otherwise.

The plain fact of the matter is, if over three hundred full fishing days on the water, experimenting with every aspect of my bars, including lighter rigging didn't teach me that serious rigging has no negative effects on the fish, I would have dropped my rigging specs down. Heck, that would both lower costs and make the rigging process easier. But since that was all that I saw that lighter rigging would accomplish, the specs didn't change and my stuff remains loaded for bear.

No, we can't guarantee our rigging, like we do the bars, but I can tell you this...SuperBars and Spiders are rigged for bear, right down to the little fellows that big fish often jump on. I wouldn't build them any other way for my hardcore charterboat that fished for weeks, not days on end in big game fishing heaven...and I wouldn't rig them any other way for anyone else's boat, either.

I leave you with a picture of a low-profile east coast excellent tuna fisherman with a nice bluefin, one of four similar sized fish caught on Little Meatball Bars that were over twelve years old and have caught a very large number of fish. He finally got around to ordering more because he lost a couple (yay!) and said he felt guilty because he'd caught so many fish on them and hadn't bought any more SuperBars for twelve years...I shoulda charged him double, that rascal!

They don't kink, taco, corrode, rust, or break, either. No sales pitch there, just the cold, hard facts. Some of you are loyal to the guys that you have beem buying bars from forever. I respect and admire that. If you do choose to try some of mine some day, of course I will be happy. If not, at least you know a lot about them that you couldn't find out without this great site, it's incredible video capability (look around - you won't find anything like it elsewhere) and posts like this one.